A humble little blog about books, information, and other things that are good to know.

Posts tagged ‘Eat Pray Love’

By now it’s no secret that I’m not too interested in seeing Eat Pray Love, and I’m not sure I even want to put the time into reading the book. Memoirs really aren’t my cup of tea in any case. But that doesn’t mean I can’t pull together a bundle of reading recommendations and suggestions for people who want more of the Eat Pray Love phenomenon.

If you loved Eat Pray Love, what was it that captured your heart? It could be the exotic settings. Maybe it’s the idea of a woman finding freedom or self-discovery. It could be the romance, or the spiritual seeking. Or maybe you’re a foodie at heart. There’s no doubt that Eat Pray Love is a multi-faceted concept that could draw people in on a lot of different levels. So I’ll try to recommend a few volumes to appeal to any Eat-Pray-Lover. (more…)

I wrote yesterday about the cool reviews for Eat Pray Love and the possibility that viewers won’t be sympathetic to a character who takes a year-long unpaid jaunt to Eurasia while they’re stuck in the midst of a recession. As predicted, a few people told me “read the book and then you’ll understand”, but all I really claimed to do was blog on my own impressions. My impression? It might be inspiring to watch Julia Roberts find enlightenment on another continent, but it’ll probably leave most viewers with the impression that enlightenment is far beyond the reach of anybody who can’t afford the requisite spiritual jump-start of long-distance travel.

But it turns out that even somebody who can’t afford an Eat Pray Love vacation can get a little piece of Elizabeth Gilbert’s spiritual awakening for themselves, the same way kids get a piece of their favourite Disney Princess in McDonald’s Happy Meals or giant nerds like me got a piece of The Lord of the Rings mythos by collecting plastic bobbleheads shaped like Gollum. Witness the wide range of merchandise aimed at women just like Elizabeth, only not likely to make it to Bali any time soon:

World Market shoppers can decorate their homes with a collection of exotic accents allegedly inspired by the movie and its locations, from teapots to Tibetan prayer flags.

Fans who are also fashionistas can show their love by dressing in the embroidered-silk Eat Pray Lovefashion line by Sue Wong.

And while they’re at it, why not accessorize with Eat Pray Lovejewelry from Dogeared?

A tie-in fragrance line offers you the chance to represent yourself with one of three aromas inspired by Gilbert’s travels: sugary-smelling ‘Eat’, warm and spicy ‘Pray’, or tropical-floral ‘Love’.

If you’ve been saving your pennies, you may be able to afford a package tour to invoke the Eat Pray Love journey, if not in its original year-long form.

And I have to admit, what drives me craziest is how much some of this stuff appeals to me! Haven’t I been looking for meditation bells since I started studying mindfulness? Wouldn’t it be neat to have one of these compass-shaped charm bracelets? Or a meditation wrap?

Let’s be honest – right now, I’m not blogging. I’m Christmas-shopping. For myself.

These are meaningful spiritual symbols for some people. For others, they’re movie tie-ins. They’re a way to tie in to a fad . . . but they also represent a real spiritual desire that the movie is tapping into. Elizabeth Gilbert found fulfillment and discovered who she really was by going on this fantastic journey. You can never do that . . . but maybe if you wear ‘Pray’ fragrance or drink the Eat Pray Love tea, you can at least have a little bit of that experience, a little bit of that fulfillment.

Ultimately, I can’t help feeling as if the Eat Pray Love movie logo cheapens the search for meaning. And yet, at the same time, could it also be a compass for some women who might not otherwise connect with these paths to spiritual fulfillment? It could, but I fear that we live in a society that tries to collapse long processes into shorter time frames. If Julia Roberts can find peace and enlightenment in a two-hour movie, shouldn’t I be able to manage it?I want to embrace the movie as a signpost on the path to enlightenment, but I’m worried about how easy it is for us to mistake a signpost for the final destination.

Years of serious meditation practice is too much work. I’ll by an OM bracelet instead.

Full disclosure: I haven’t read Eat, Pray, Love, and I haven’t seen the movie either. I was becoming vaguely interested in it because of the religious angle, and I thought I might check out the book (no pun intended . . . well, maybe just a little) for that reason. I like yoga and meditation and honest spiritual reflection, all of which seem like key ingredients in Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir. It seems like this would be a bandwagon I’d just be dying to hop on.

But I’m not exactly jumping.

And when you think about it, it’s not too hard to understand why I can’t get myself too worked up about Liz Gilbert’s spiritual struggles as depicted in the movie. In a time of recession, when money is a nightmare-inducing stressor for far too many families, it’s hard to feel much more than resentment for somebody who goes into her travel agent’s office and plans a year’s vacation just because she wants to marvel at something.

Hey, lady, I’d marvel at finding a job somewhere other than Burger King. Don’t you realize how good you’ve got it? (Hint: If you can afford to plan a year-long vacation in exotic locales, you’ve got it pretty good. There must be more than a little cash coming in to bankroll that kind of self-exploration.)

If you can't afford your own private Indian swami, then spiritual enlightenment is not for you. Image courtesy of The Moxie Bee.

Caitlin Kelly, a fellow WordPress blogger, complains of the sexism lurking behind bad reviews in a post called “‘Eat, Pray, Love’: Why A Woman Seeking Solo Joy Pisses Everyone Off”. According to her analysis, the sour grapes are all about society’s reaction to a free-spirited woman who decides she doesn’t need a man or a baby to be happy. If men have the freedom to explore the world, she argues, then so should women. And she’s right. If that’s our Lizzie’s path, more power to her.

But, speaking for myself, I’m not pissed off about “a woman seeking solo joy”, as Kelly insists. I’m pissed off because if I want to seek joy, solo or otherwise, I’m limited by my (dwindling, anemic) bank account. If joy isn’t within short driving distance of where I live, I’m not going to find it. Not everyone can jet to Italy, India, and Indonesia for a year-long voyage of self-discovery. And maybe something’s been lost in translation from book to movie, but based on the reviews I’ve read, it seems like the movie doesn’t have much to say about self-discovery for women who can’t afford the kind of big-scale travel Liz Gilbert takes on in Eat, Pray, Love.

Lee Ferguson of CBC.ca diagnoses the movie’s main money-making strategy: “It pays lip service to female empowerment, while using more calculated means — James Franco! Food porn! Exotic locales! — to lure hungry women viewers into multiplex seats.” Andrea Gronvall of the Chicago Reader goes one step further: “only hard-core fans of Oprah’s BFF will be able to stomach this navel-gazing tripe, which posits ‘me-first’ consumerism as the road to happiness.” In other words, what started off looking like an encouraging movie about finding empowerment and knowing thyself rapidly becomes a pie-in-the-sky fantasy.

No wonder it’s not finding the warm reception it undoubtedly expected. Seeing Julia Roberts’ character fly to Italy to have a relationship with her pizza just reminds me that I can’t even responsibly order in Little Caesar’s. And in fact, I should probably be feeling guilty that I bought this movie ticket in the first place, and God help me if I splurged on a Coke and popcorn.

There are those who will argue that it’s not fair for me to comment if I haven’t seen the movie. They’re probably right. I’m relying primarily on the opinions of others, but also on the way I feel when that trailer comes on TV. I see that “go for it!” attitude splashed all over the screen and wonder, would I be enlightened if I had no commitments and no obligations and the financial wherewithal to catch the next plane to Dharamsala? Somehow bailing out on everybody who might possibly rely on your presence doesn’t seem like a reliable path to self-discovery.

But more than that, I resent the implication that finding myself could be just one credit card swipe away . . . and that it doesn’t belong to the people who can’t afford to pay for it.